alter
EnglishEdit
PronunciationEdit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈɔːl.tə/, /ˈɒl.tə/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈɔl.tɚ/
- (cot–caught merger, Canada) IPA(key): /ˈɑl.tɚ/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɔːltə(ɹ)
- Homophone: altar
- Hyphenation: al‧ter
Etymology 1Edit
From Old French alterer (French altérer), from Medieval Latin alterare (“to make other”), from Latin alter (“the other”), from al- (seen in alius (“other”), alienus (“of another”), etc.; see alias, alien, etc.) + compar. suffix -ter.
VerbEdit
alter (third-person singular simple present alters, present participle altering, simple past and past participle altered)
- (transitive) To change the form or structure of.
- Bible, Psalms lxxxix. 34
- My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.
- Shakespeare
- No power in Venice can alter a decree.
- Alexander Pope
- It gilds all objects, but it alters none.
- Bible, Psalms lxxxix. 34
- (intransitive) To become different.
- (transitive) To tailor clothes to make them fit.
- (transitive) To castrate, neuter or spay (a dog or other animal).
- (transitive) To affect mentally, as by psychotropic drugs or illness.
- 2016 February 10, Sydney Pruitt and Claire Ricke (quoting Jeff Barrick), "Police: Man lying in street hit, killed by Capital Metro bus", KXAN:
- We don't know if he was altered on alcohol or drugs or anything […]
- 2016 February 10, Sydney Pruitt and Claire Ricke (quoting Jeff Barrick), "Police: Man lying in street hit, killed by Capital Metro bus", KXAN:
Alternative formsEdit
- altre (obsolete)
Derived termsEdit
Derived terms
Related termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
to change the form or structure of
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Further readingEdit
- alter in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- alter in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
Etymology 2Edit
Probably from alter ego.
NounEdit
alter (plural alters)
- (especially in the plural) One of the identities or personalities of a person with multiple personality disorder / dissociative identity disorder.
- 2012, Robert J. Kohlenberg, Mavis Tsai, Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (→ISBN):
- Often this process is highly aversive and evokes avoidance; that is, it can be very anxiety provoking to the host to be told that she is a multiple much less than to be told the details of an alter's experience. [...] She stated that she was now integrated, but that every day she meditated and visualized each of her alters[.]
- 2012, Robert J. Kohlenberg, Mavis Tsai, Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (→ISBN):
AnagramsEdit
DanishEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Old Norse altari, from Old Saxon altari, from Latin altare (“altar”), cognates with Icelandic altari.
NounEdit
alter n (singular definite altret or alteret, plural indefinite altre)
InflectionEdit
Declension of alter
GermanEdit
LatinEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Proto-Indo-European *h₂élteros (“the other of two”) (akin to English other). Akin to alius. Confer with ulter.
PronunciationEdit
AdjectiveEdit
alter (feminine altera, neuter alterum); first/second declension
InflectionEdit
First/second declension, nominative masculine singular in -er, with genitive singular in -īus and dative singular in -ī.
| Number | Singular | Plural | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Case / Gender | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |
| nominative | alter | altera | alterum | alterī | alterae | altera | |
| genitive | alterīus | alterōrum | alterārum | alterōrum | |||
| dative | alterī | alterīs | |||||
| accusative | alterum | alteram | alterum | alterōs | alterās | altera | |
| ablative | alterō | alterā | alterō | alterīs | |||
| vocative | alter | altera | alterum | alterī | alterae | altera | |
Derived termsEdit
DescendantsEdit
- Aragonese: atro
- Aromanian: altu
- Asturian: otru
- Catalan altre
- Dalmatian: jultro
- Franco-Provençal: ôtro
- French: autre, autrui
- Friulian: altri
- Galician: outro
ReferencesEdit
- alter in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- alter in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- alter in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
- Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
- one or two days: unus et alter dies
- one, two, several days had passed, intervened: dies unus, alter, plures intercesserant
- one or two days: unus et alter dies
Norwegian BokmålEdit
Etymology 1Edit
NounEdit
alter n (definite singular alteret / altret, indefinite plural alter / altere / altre, definite plural altera / altra / altrene)
- an altar
Etymology 2Edit
NounEdit
alter m
- indefinite plural of alt